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Auto-Generation of Slim Appearance files
Previous versions have automatically generated a Pixar style .sli file
for each shader compiled using Cutter. However, the SLI file format was deprecated
some time ago. Such files continue to work with Maya and RAT but will probably not
do so for much longer.
Version 4.3.0 incorporated a major overhaul to the way that Cutter can automatically
convert the source code for a surface shader into a SLIM template. Currently,
this can only be done for surface shaders. In this new version of Cutter, a similiar
upgrade has occured for SLI files.
When compiling any type of RSL shader - not just surface shaders - Cutter
will automatically generate, not a SLI file but a type of SLIM file known as an
appearance. Such SLIM files will have the same name as their SLO counterparts
and will only be generated when Cutter is using Pixar's "shader" compiler.
All the rules that govern the way that Cutter uses uihint's embedded within
the comments that accompany the declaration of a shaders parameters ie. its instance
variables (refer to version 4.3.0), are applied by Cutter to both
SLIM templates and SLIM appearances.
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